In my devotional time this morning I read from Exodus 17, the story of the first battle of the Israelites after they left Egypt.  It was battle to defeat Amalek, who had come to wage war with them.  God directs Moses to go ahead and fight the battle.  Early the next morning the battle begins and Moses takes Aaron, his brother, the High Priest, and Hur, up to the top of a nearby hill to observe the battle.  As long as Moses held up his staff the Israelites would hold the advantage, but whenever he lowered his staff the Amalekites gained the advantage.

As one can imagine after continuously holding up his arms they became very tired, so Aaron and Hur found a large rock for Moses to sit on and then they placed themselves on each side of Moses and held up his arms so he could continue to hold up the staff for the rest of the day.  They held up his arms in this way until sunset.  The text says, "In this way Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle."

As I reflected on this text God showed me, once again, how important it is for every person who is a true follower of Jesus to have their own Aaron and Hur.  We fight battles every day and God knows we cannot continue day after day to fight them alone.  We grow tired and weary of the battle and our tendency is, at the point of our exhaustion, to give up.

Jesus never intended for His followers to walk out their faith and commitment to Him in isolation from other followers.  This story of Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' arms is a refreshing reminder that God desires for all Christ-followers to have "Aarons and Hurs" in their lives. 

My personal testimony is that if it weren't for my Aaron's and Hurs, I would have lost the battle many times over the years.  I thank God for the dear brothers and sisters who "held up my arms" during my moments of weakness and kept me from giving up the battle.   

Continuing in Christ

"And now, dear children, continue in Him, so that when He appears we may be confident and unashamed before Him at his coming.  If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him." [NIV]    1 John 2:28-29

I have always been endeared to the Apostle John's teaching.  When I listen to him speak through his writings, I hear someone who was not only with Jesus but was especially loved by Jesus.  I believe John had an especially close relationship with Jesus, one that would shape his ministry to the early Church.

So when John writes, "Dear children, continue in Him, I hear Jesus speaking, I hear the heart of Jesus overflowing with love for His children, you and me who love Him and endeavor to serve Him.  In this text from 1 John, he is giving us some practical instructions as to how to live in view of Christ's imminent return. 

John was with Jesus when Jesus said, "I'm going back to my Father, but I will return one day.  Remember John had also heard Jesus say that He would die and then come back to life after three days and he witnessed the fact of that actually happening.  All of John's experiences with Jesus make his word believable and trustworthy.

What is on John's heart here in these verses is his concern that you and I as believers actually walk out our claim of faith in Jesus.  When we are born again, we are actually born of Him and He places in our hearts a desire to do what is right.  And John is encouraging us to do what we know in our hearts is right.  But the fact is that as sinful creatures we often don't do what is right even though we want to.  Remember what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:15?  He wrote, "I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."

As we continue walking out our journey of faith in Jesus, we will desire to do what is right more and more.  "Continuing in Him," as John says, is the key to doing what is right.  As we grow in our faith, we begin to recognize this more and more.  When we said, "Yes" to Jesus He placed the Holy Spirit within us to not only speak God's truth to our hearts, but to sanctify us and grow us to Spiritual maturity.

As we faithfully "Continue in Him," we actually become more like Him.  We begin to understand more and more that He is in us, and we are in Him..  I like the phrase I heard once, "He is in us loving, and we are in Him being loved."  How precious is that thought, that I am in Jesus being loved.  This fact challenges me to do what is right.

Resolve today to "Continue in Him" and watch the amazing things He will do in your life!

The difference between "being a Christian," and "Following Jesus."

Recently I've been preaching through a series of messages dealing with the issue of whether or not we are true followers of Jesus or just "Fans" of Jesus.  This has been challenging for me as I pondered my own walk.  I find that in many ways I, too, struggle with being a fan, someone who truly admires Jesus for who he was and is but not willing to yield all of my life completely and unreservedly to Him.

But Jesus calls us to be more than fans.  He calls us to be committed followers of Him and His way. He asks those of us who truly desire to become followers to, "Deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow Him."  [Luke 9:23]  That "denying" is a hard thing for Christians to do.  We seem to have it all figured out and taking up our cross daily is not in our game plan.

One of the things that get in the way of becoming truly committed followers of Jesus is the fact that we are Christian.  I think that the term Christian, in the Western world today, actually becomes a crutch that we use to keep us from going deeper in our relationship with Jesus.  We say, "I'm a Christian," and that, for many of us seems to be all there is.

To be a "Christian" really indicates that we are Christ-Like and I would challenge you to consider that.  Are you truly Christ-Like?  I find that no matter how hard I try to be Christ-like, I ALWAYS fail.  It's impossible to be Christ-like.  So to see ourselves as "Christians" may actually lead us to a false sense of security and keep us at a place of "No Growth," in the maturing process that God has in mind for us.

BUT, what about this idea of being a follower of Jesus?  What if, deciding that rather than trying to be Christian, we try to simply become a "Follower of Jesus?"  To quote from someone else, "When you follow someone, it's usually because you cannot get there yourself."  If you're like me, you are painfully aware of your inability to get it right.  So when we finally decide to just make the attempt to follow Jesus, we find that we become freed from the weight of expectation of self and from others. We find ourselves free to fail and to fail again.  Each new day becomes a day of a re-commitment to follow Jesus and the recognition that I will never perfectly follow Him.  But with that knowledge comes the realization that this is all that Jesus is asking of us.  Just follow Him, failures and all.

So for me, I see myself as much less a "Christian," and much more a "Follower of Jesus."  I want desperately to be vulnerable and open in my relationship with Jesus, knowing that I will never be perfect and I don't have to be.  Because Jesus never asks me to be perfect.  He wants to be my perfection.  He wants me to live my sin-riddled life through His life.  And that, with His help, is what I will do.

Become a Jesus Follower!

"True" Discipleship is Costly!

Immediately after Jesus comes down the mountain from his transfiguration, he tries, once again, to tell his disciples about his coming death at the hands of the religious elite, his burial and ultimate resurrection.  But they don't get it.  (sound familiar?)  

In fact he is no sooner finished talking about his death when he overhears a conversation among the disciples as to which one of them would be the greatest in the new kingdom he was about to set up; the one that would finally overthrow Rome.  Their perception!

So he proceeds to give the disciples an "Attitude Adjustment."  He asks them to bring a little boy to be before him and he says, "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.  For he who is least among you all is the one who is great." 

In Jesus Kingdom we can have value, importance and great influence if we are willing to do it God's way, by understanding that, aside from Christ, we are nothing and can do nothing. We must become as the little, powerless boy who completely yielded his will to Jesus.

There is a cost to true discipleship.  There are many people who demand, maybe not so much in actual words, but certainly by actions, absolute control of their life.  They refuse to surrender their will to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  When we don't listen to or obey God's voice, our life's endeavors become meaningless.

The true cost of discipleship is complete surrender!  We must submit our lives to Jesus control.  We must deny what this world has to offer.  And we must focus our full attention on the Kingdom and on living Kingdom life.  (Luke 9:57-62)

I believe that one of the areas of Christian living that Christians fall so short of today is focusing our full attention on the Kingdom.  We focus our attention on earthly priorities instead of Kingdom priorities.  We have misplaced our priorities!  Our priorities must be straight, they must be Kingdom focused or we will never get to where God wants us to be.

So many Christians today fail or are unwilling to surrender everything to Jesus because their priorities are not in order.  When we say, "Yes" to Jesus the cost of that decision will be a complete surrender of our will and our priorities.  Our priorities now become His priorities.

Yes, there is a cost to discipleship.  It's a steep price we pay for following Jesus and His way.  It's a cost that too few Christians are willing to pay.  But for the few who will choose to surrender their lives completely and fully to Christ, the rewards in this life and in the life to come are huge.


Come, walk with me!

"On Building a Great Church"

What does it take to build a great church?  That is a question that far too many pastors and church leaders are wrestling with today?  I have a question also, but it's not that question.  I wrestle with questions like, "Is dynamic Pastoral Leadership," the key or is it, "Ripping Programs," or "Loaded finances," or "the location, adequate parking, lots of open space, facilities or attractive landscaping?"

Over the years I've come to the conclusion that while all of those can help none of them are the key to building a great church.  The key, I believe is, does our church "Reveal a Great God?"  What the lost are looking for is a community of people imparting the life of a great God to one another.  The greatest church growth tool, I believe, is people walking out what it means to be in relationship with Jesus Christ.

It's a community of people acting out certain core Biblical values like grace, acceptance, forgiveness in an atmosphere of celebration.  Those who are seeking meaning in life are not looking for religious traditions and institutions--they are looking for a community of faith that is being transformed by the grace of God.

I'm reminded of what God said, from the cloud during the transfiguration of Jesus.  Jesus had just taken Peter, James and John up on the mountain where he was transfigured into his spiritual body and then Moses and Elijah showed up.  Peter was watching all of this and began to blubber something about "building huts" for them all to hang out in.  But while he was all blubber-mouthed, God was saying something really important for Peter to hear and for the church to hear today.

God was saying, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him!"   God wasn't interested in some great building program of Peter,  What God was really interested in was for Peter, and us today, to pay attention to and be obedient to his Son, Jesus.

God is glorified not when we invest all of our energy into some man-made building program, but rather he is glorified when we do what he has told us to do on many occasions, "LISTEN TO JESUS!"